WEBVTT 00:00:08.080 --> 00:00:18.559 You can open your Bibles to the gospel according to Matthew chapter 22 is where we'll be tonight as you're making your way there. 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:26.559 Uh I want to make sure you all knew that Ann McCarty passed away on Wednesday morning. 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:29.120 She was the mother of Stephen McCarty. 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:31.920 She used to sit right here in the uh front row at her evening service. 00:00:32.079 --> 00:00:37.520 I'm sure uh you would recognize her uh or remember her. 00:00:37.679 --> 00:00:40.240 Um there will be a celebration of her life. 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.520 Uh we're so thankful for her life and uh her faithfulness. 00:00:43.600 --> 00:00:47.759 She was a believer in Christ and is uh now free from her from her pain. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:01:00.000 And uh we're thankful for the McCartys and how they cared for Stephen's mom and uh and kind of lent her to us in her fellowship and her worship over the uh the past years. 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:07.120 Uh her celebration of life will be the 29th, which is I think is a Tuesday, uh here at Emanuel Bible Church. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:13.680 Uh I'm not sure of the time, um, but it's towards the end of November, the 29th, um, will be a chance to celebrate her life. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:22.480 So uh yeah, McCartys, we're sorry for your loss and grateful for uh your mom and and her faithfulness. 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:28.000 So Matthew 22 tonight, let me pray briefly before we dive into God's word. 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:35.040 Lord, we are uh grateful for faith that you have given us the gift of belief. 00:01:35.439 --> 00:01:38.480 Uh we couldn't buy it, we couldn't earn it, you just gave it. 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:47.120 Paul said this morning we were saved uh by a gift, in a gift, for a gift. 00:01:47.280 --> 00:01:54.239 And we're thankful that the gift of salvation, what you've given us, is ours now, uh, but it's it's yours. 00:01:54.480 --> 00:02:09.840 So tonight we turn our hearts and your word back to you, and we pray that your spirit would work in us to cause us to really believe and celebrate and rejoice the reality of heaven that Anne, of course, is experiencing now, also the reality of heaven that we just sang about. 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:20.000 Um we uh can hold a baby and have uh no qualms about the future. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:29.199 You live in uncertain days, but or we don't know what the world would be like that our children grew up into, but we know that at the end of it uh there's confidence in the resurrection because you live. 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:33.919 And so pray that you'd instill in us that same confidence tonight that we just sang with our lips. 00:02:34.080 --> 00:02:35.439 We ask this in Jesus' name. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:36.319 Amen. 00:02:37.439 --> 00:02:42.159 Matthew 22, uh, verse 23 is where it'll be tonight. 00:02:42.479 --> 00:02:51.759 Um The same day, the Sadducees came to him who say that there is no resurrection. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:03:03.520 And they asked him a question, saying, Teacher, Moses said, If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up his offspring for his brother. 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:06.319 Now there were seven brothers among us. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:10.080 The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 00:03:10.159 --> 00:03:12.319 So to the second and the third down to the seventh. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:13.919 Dot dot dot dot dot. 00:03:14.639 --> 00:03:16.639 After them all, the woman died. 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.919 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:23.919 For they all had her. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.560 We'll save the conclusion for later. 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:31.280 There is a certain logic at minds, though. 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:36.240 There's a certain logic at work in the mind of people that rejects the gospel. 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:38.560 It's an excuse that I have often heard. 00:03:39.520 --> 00:03:56.080 Sometimes it comes in the form of a question from a visitor in the hallway afterwards, and the question usually starts like this I have asked every Christian I know or every pastor I know this question, and no one can explain it to me, the implication being that's why I'm not a Christian. 00:03:56.319 --> 00:04:02.400 So they've crafted in their mind some like slam dunk hypothetical. 00:04:03.520 --> 00:04:06.560 And no pastor, no Christian anywhere can answer it. 00:04:06.719 --> 00:04:08.960 Therefore, the Bible can't be trusted. 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:12.800 Did Adam have a belly button? 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:18.240 And you call yourself a Christian. 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:23.439 Now there is a logical truth operating the backgrounds behind that question. 00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:37.680 The logical truth is that if the Bible is inspired, meaning breathed out by God, written under the direction of the Holy Spirit, if it's a divine book, if the Bible is inspired, then it would be inerrant. 00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:44.480 So if this is the word of God from God Himself, inspired by His Spirit, then there can't be anything wrong with it. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:46.399 It's not gonna have any errors in it. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:49.759 So inspired just means, you know, God breathed it. 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:53.680 Inerrant means there's no errors inside of it. 00:04:53.839 --> 00:04:56.399 If it is inspired, therefore it has to be inerrant. 00:04:56.480 --> 00:04:57.839 So there's a logic there. 00:04:58.079 --> 00:05:07.199 So if there is something incorrect in the Bible, if there is a contradiction or something that's not true in the Bible, then you can doubt the whole thing. 00:05:07.360 --> 00:05:10.720 You know, it's it's the window, when one part of it breaks, the whole thing breaks. 00:05:10.879 --> 00:05:14.639 So if there is something wrong with the Bible, the whole thing can be doubted. 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:21.279 And it can't be doubted because uh if one part is wrong, therefore logically everything else in it is false. 00:05:21.360 --> 00:05:22.639 That's not why you can doubt it. 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:31.680 But you would be allowed to doubt it because if one part is wrong, that means the whole thing is not inspired, which means therefore it has no authority to be binding over your moral life. 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:33.680 And that's the the logic that's at play there. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:36.399 And I hope uh people understand that. 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:39.040 I mean, this whole thing stands or falls as a book. 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:40.639 Either it's true or it's not. 00:05:40.800 --> 00:05:52.000 And if any part of it is not true, then it might be a nice collection of stories and there might be good moral lessons in there for you to teach your kids and whatnot, but it certainly doesn't have authority over your life or tell you what's gonna happen to you when you die. 00:05:52.079 --> 00:05:53.839 So that's the logic that is that is true. 00:05:53.920 --> 00:05:55.279 That is truth right there. 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.160 And it's operating in the background behind the question. 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:01.680 But notice how the question gets changed when the skeptic asks it. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:06.399 The skeptic asks, can you explain this complicated part of the Bible? 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:09.360 And if I can't understand that, then I can reject the whole thing. 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:11.279 Do you see how the goalpost got moved there? 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:16.399 The logical truth is if something is wrong with it, then it's not inspired. 00:06:16.560 --> 00:06:23.920 But it gets changed to, if I can't understand all of it, then I don't have to understand any of it. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:27.199 Do you see how those two are not the same statement? 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:30.720 The Bible is inspired, it is inerrant. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:41.519 If there was something wrong with it, then it wouldn't be inspired, therefore it wouldn't be inerrant, which is very different than saying, if I don't understand all of it, I don't have to believe any of it. 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:46.720 Would you want a God who you could completely understand? 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:53.920 And I think some people have that God and they look at him every morning in the mirror, or her every morning in the mirror. 00:06:54.639 --> 00:06:57.920 The truth is you don't understand the totality of God. 00:06:58.079 --> 00:06:59.360 He's incomprehensible. 00:06:59.519 --> 00:07:04.639 That's one of the things the Bible says about him is that he is incomprehensible. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:09.040 We can't behold him, our puny minds can't understand his entirety. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:12.560 We can understand what he communicates to us to an extent in his word. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:22.480 The Bible itself is a form of accommodation brought by the Holy Spirit from heaven to earth, written to us in a way we can understand, but he can't explain God in his fullness, of course not. 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:30.160 But sometimes the skeptics don't see the difference between themselves and God. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:39.199 They make themselves the judge of truth, and so they say, if I can't understand how the hard things are true, then I reject the easy things. 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:43.920 That is the great skeptical fallacy. 00:07:45.120 --> 00:07:47.600 I want to give you a brief outline here. 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:49.680 First is the hypocrite's fallacy. 00:07:49.920 --> 00:07:53.439 The hypocrite's fallacy is seen in the passage we just read. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:08:00.160 The Sadducees came to him, and it says in the same day, the Sadducees are coming to Jesus now in an order here. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:05.040 It's through Herodians first, uh, then the Sadducees and the Pharisees. 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:08.800 These are the groups of people that make up the kind of the rulers of Israel. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:16.480 Remember the goal in our series, this questioning Jesus series, is we're tracking how these rulers are trying to trap Jesus with his questions. 00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:19.920 They realize they can't outmaneuver him militarily. 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:23.439 He's got the support of the people, they can't just ambush him and kill him. 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:28.639 So their attempt here now on Tuesday of this Passion Week is to trap him in his words. 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:31.920 This is their last attempt to bring him down. 00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:35.600 And so it's a series of questions. 00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:43.360 The questions began, if you recall, with them asking Jesus by what authority he was operating under, who gave him the authority to do these things. 00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:44.639 That was part one of this series. 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:47.919 And Jesus' response was basically to refuse to answer the question. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:51.120 He asked them, by what authority did John the Baptist preach? 00:08:51.279 --> 00:08:53.840 By the authority of God or not? 00:08:54.240 --> 00:08:57.840 And they didn't want to answer that because the crowd loved John the Baptist as well. 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:00.240 And so they were silenced and they went away embarrassed. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:08.159 They huddled up, they came up with this new approach, they divided into thirds here, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, uh, and the Herodians. 00:09:08.240 --> 00:09:10.000 The Herodians were the party of Herod. 00:09:10.080 --> 00:09:13.519 All three are asking questions that are totally contradictory to their worldview. 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:22.960 I mean, the the crazy thing about these three questions they're gonna, one, two, three here, is that they're all asked by a person who doesn't even believe the question they're asking. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:27.840 You know, the the first question was the Herodians asking, is it okay to pay taxes to Caesar? 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:34.720 They're called the Herodians because they're the pro-Roman party, and yet they're feigning like they're offended by the coin because of its idolatry. 00:09:34.799 --> 00:09:37.120 The Herodians, for goodness sake. 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:40.960 This question is brought to you by the Sadducees. 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:44.879 The Sadducees are always sad, you see. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:49.600 Why are they so sad, you see? 00:09:49.840 --> 00:09:52.799 Because they don't believe in the resurrection. 00:09:54.000 --> 00:10:00.399 The Sadducees come from a long line of people who refuse to believe the truth about heaven. 00:10:00.720 --> 00:10:04.000 They reject the concept of an afterlife. 00:10:04.559 --> 00:10:08.000 Something that they say was brought into the Bible later. 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:15.759 So they refuse to listen to what Jesus says about earth because they reject what he says about heaven. 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:20.960 Again, a very typical approach from people who confuse heaven and earth. 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:27.679 And Jesus has often in his ministry staked his ability to preach about earth because of his origins in heaven. 00:10:27.759 --> 00:10:32.000 Remember what he told Nicodemus, you're the teacher of Israel and you don't know these things. 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:43.679 And Jesus says, you know, if you Jesus tells Nicodemus, and he rebukes him in John chapter 3, if you don't believe what I say about earth, how are you going to believe what I speak about heaven? 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:48.639 I'm speaking about things that I've seen, Jesus tells Nicodemus that you haven't seen. 00:10:48.799 --> 00:10:50.159 That goes back to John chapter 1. 00:10:50.480 --> 00:10:52.480 Jesus is from the bosom of God. 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:54.399 He's speaking of his eternal generation. 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:56.080 He's from God's side. 00:10:56.399 --> 00:11:00.320 And he comes to earth to tell us the truth about God and the truth about heaven. 00:11:00.480 --> 00:11:02.480 And if so, if why would you reject that? 00:11:02.639 --> 00:11:05.679 He's the only one that has seen what he's talking about. 00:11:07.759 --> 00:11:09.200 He told Nicodemus that. 00:11:09.279 --> 00:11:12.240 Remember when the person in the lame person was lowered to the roof? 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:18.720 And Jesus says, Your sins are forgiven, and the Pharisees lost their beards, they were so upset. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.799 And Jesus says, to show you that I have the authority to forgive sins. 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:26.399 I'll tell him to pick up your, you know, his mat and walk, but which is actually harder to do. 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:29.919 And of course, there are the same syllables in in Greek. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:32.399 It's not like one's harder to say than the other. 00:11:32.960 --> 00:11:44.720 Jesus is identifying, though, the reality that what he says about heaven is true and validated on earth to prove that he can cause the guy to be healed physically to demonstrate that he speaks with authority about the spiritual side. 00:11:44.799 --> 00:11:45.840 They're joins. 00:11:47.120 --> 00:11:53.039 Yet the skeptics often say, I reject what the Bible says about heaven because I don't like what it says about earth. 00:11:54.879 --> 00:11:57.360 That's the hypocrite's fallacy. 00:11:59.039 --> 00:12:03.679 Understand and appreciate for a moment with this that the Pharisees and Sadducees have differences. 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:06.720 They were often rivals, they often had their own disputes. 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:10.240 The Pharisees believed ostensibly in divine sovereignty. 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:16.480 The Sadducees believed in free will, the triumph of free will. 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:23.840 The Pharisees believed that they couldn't understand the mysterious ways God worked in the world, but God was at work over all things. 00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:29.360 The Sadducees rejected that God, and the Sadducees at least had a logical cohesion to the argument. 00:12:29.519 --> 00:12:36.320 They rejected the idea of the supernatural in the world because, you know, they rejected the idea that God could be sovereign over some things, but not all things. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:38.559 And so they have a little bit going for them right there. 00:12:38.720 --> 00:12:44.559 You know, if God's not sovereign over all things, he can't be sovereign over anything, was the Sadducees' logic. 00:12:44.879 --> 00:12:48.000 And so they just removed the supernatural from this world. 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:51.600 Free will ruled the day according to the Sadducees. 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:57.360 What human volition, that was, was primary, and what human volition opted to do, God couldn't restrain. 00:12:57.440 --> 00:12:58.960 So that was the Sadducees. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:02.879 They elevated human volition and free will. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:05.120 The Pharisees, of course, elevated the law. 00:13:05.200 --> 00:13:05.759 That's going to be important. 00:13:05.840 --> 00:13:09.840 Next week we'll look at the Pharisees, Lord willing, with their question. 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:12.080 Pharisees elevated the law. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:14.559 They were pharisaical about it, you could say. 00:13:14.799 --> 00:13:18.240 The Sadducees were much more dismissive of the law. 00:13:18.639 --> 00:13:22.240 Some commentators say the Sadducees were okay with loose living. 00:13:23.039 --> 00:13:25.679 The Pharisees believed in angels and demons. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:28.000 The Sadducees did not believe in either. 00:13:28.159 --> 00:13:33.120 The Pharisees accepted what we call the Old Testament as God's written revelation to mankind. 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:39.919 It included the written tradition, the Torah, the writings, and the prophets according to the Pharisees, as well as the oral traditions. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:45.759 That's why the Pharisees were always in rabbinical debates, because they believed in the written tradition as well as the oral tradition. 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:49.679 It could be furthered by, they created their own oral traditions, the Pharisees sparred. 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:52.399 The Sadducees rejected all of that as nonsense. 00:13:52.639 --> 00:13:59.360 The Sadducees received the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, the law of Moses, they believed that. 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:02.159 Everything else they said came out of the oral traditions. 00:14:02.240 --> 00:14:04.480 So they rejected the history books as authoritative. 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:10.080 They maybe would have said some things, you know, the book of Kings and Chronicles might be true, but it's certainly not authoritative. 00:14:10.720 --> 00:14:13.120 They rejected the Psalms as guides for worship. 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:16.720 They rejected the Proverbs as any kind of authoritative wisdom. 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:20.480 They rejected basically all of the Old Testament except the Torah. 00:14:22.799 --> 00:14:27.039 The most important distinction between the two, though, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, is what you see in the story. 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:33.840 Because of that rejection, the Sadducees dug their heels in on rejecting the resurrection. 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:37.840 The Sadducees taught that this life is all there is. 00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:41.440 When you died according to the Sadducees, your soul went to Sheol. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:42.720 Soul sleep. 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:44.559 Word is done. 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:47.759 And the body is lost forever. 00:14:49.679 --> 00:14:54.480 Now, why did the Sadducees deny angels, demons, afterlife, etc.? 00:14:56.159 --> 00:14:58.720 Because they said you can't teach those from the Torah. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:07.200 They were so dogmatic against the oral tradition, they rejected those things, saying they're not taught in the Torah. 00:15:08.240 --> 00:15:15.440 Jesus is going to point out to them tonight their basic underlying presupposition that those things don't come from the Torah isn't even true. 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:19.519 And that's why I'm titling this part The Hypocrites' Fallacy. 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:28.480 So often the hypocrites, and they're obviously being hypocritical here, that the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, and they're asking Jesus a tongue-twister riddle about the resurrection that they don't even believe in. 00:15:28.639 --> 00:15:30.080 That's why they're hypocrites here. 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:36.559 But so often the way hypocrites function is the basis of their own question they don't even believe. 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:38.720 They're not even right about it. 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:50.639 Sadducees only supposedly received the Torah, rejected the afterlife because it's not in the Torah, and Jesus is going to illustrate to them that the afterlife is indeed in the Torah. 00:15:51.039 --> 00:15:54.879 The whole basis of their man-made religion is false. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:03.600 And yet it is in Scripture here, Matthew 21, 22, verse 23 and forward. 00:16:03.759 --> 00:16:11.840 And I love that the story has been given to us by the Lord, by Matthew and Mark, both uh communicate this story to us. 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.759 I love that because it is often how the hypocrite works. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:23.840 It is so common for people to reject the clear teachings of Scripture because they can't understand complicated hypotheticals. 00:16:25.200 --> 00:16:27.440 That's what the Sadducees are doing here. 00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:40.000 They have this far-fetched question about a woman who's been, you know, married seven times, and if you can't answer that question, therefore the Bible's not clear about heaven. 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:44.240 But the truth is, again, you have to remember this when you're dealing with that kind of objection. 00:16:44.639 --> 00:16:48.080 The truth doesn't rise or fall on a complicated hypothetical. 00:16:49.360 --> 00:17:00.559 The plain things that Scripture says are true because they're plainly true, even if you can't understand every answer to every far-fetched hypothetical. 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:11.759 How typical is it for people to reject difficult things of the scripture and justify that to reject clear things of the scripture? 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:14.240 There are difficult things in the Bible, you know? 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:14.880 There are. 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:17.359 There are hard things in the Bible to understand. 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:20.400 But that doesn't mean the Bible's not true. 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:23.359 It just means that there's hard things in the Bible to understand. 00:17:23.599 --> 00:17:30.559 I comfort myself thinking that if I was smarter, there'd be less hard things to understand. 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:33.920 Some of it's my own frailty. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.279 That's what Peter did, do you remember? 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:39.119 Peter said, you know, people are always twisting Paul's words like they do the rest of the scripture. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:42.240 But the truth is there's some things Paul says that are hard to understand. 00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:44.319 That's where that's how Peter went to sleep at night. 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:47.680 Like, man, Paul, that rabbi, he can't keep up with that guy. 00:17:47.920 --> 00:17:48.880 Keep writing, brother. 00:17:48.960 --> 00:17:49.359 Go for it. 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:50.640 I'm going to sleep. 00:17:52.319 --> 00:17:54.240 That's not a bad place to be. 00:17:56.480 --> 00:17:59.440 So here's their tongue-twisting question, verse 24. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:01.039 Teacher, they address him as teacher. 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:03.519 The Herodians did that last week, too, by the way. 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:06.160 The Pharisees will do that next week in verse 36. 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:10.240 So they're, again, this is total flattery, total flattery. 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:14.319 Moses said, notice the Sadducees' question. 00:18:14.480 --> 00:18:16.319 Starts with Moses, the Torah. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:18.880 At least they're in the right book. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:27.440 If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:32.480 This is the principle of Levereite marriage. 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:40.160 Levereite marriage is taught in, well, Genesis 38, of course, but Deuteronomy 25 is where it's expressly taught. 00:18:40.400 --> 00:19:00.799 Genesis 38 is Onan and that passage, but Deuteronomy 25 is where it becomes encoded in the Mosaic law that if a couple is married and the husband dies, and they don't have any kids, that's the key part of this, they don't have any kids, and the husband's brother has to marry the widow now to produce offspring for them. 00:19:00.880 --> 00:19:02.720 So that's that's leverate marriage. 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:04.079 It's described in the Torah. 00:19:04.319 --> 00:19:07.200 Sounds so odd to us. 00:19:08.480 --> 00:19:10.400 It's just not something that's in the American culture. 00:19:10.559 --> 00:19:19.119 That's because the American culture has like wills and other ways of transferring property, and you know, we don't have the year of Jubilee, and all the property doesn't reset every 50 years. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:20.799 In the Jewish world, it did. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:27.759 So if you didn't have any offspring, there was no way to pass down your family property and your inheritance and your wealth and all that. 00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:32.160 So it was critical importance that you were able to the widow is a protection of the widow. 00:19:32.240 --> 00:19:41.839 They had to have the offspring as well as the husband who died in order to keep the family and the lands and possessions intact. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:46.000 Spares people from bankruptcy and just total chaos. 00:19:46.400 --> 00:19:47.599 So that's the law that's there. 00:19:47.759 --> 00:20:02.559 Of course, the most well-known example of this is the marriage of Ruth when her husband died, and she is an immigrant back to Israel then, and she is able to marry Boaz because of this law. 00:20:02.880 --> 00:20:05.119 So the Sadducees are asking a question about this. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:08.960 Remember, the Sadducees believe in Leveret marriage because it's in the Torah. 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:10.960 They don't believe in the resurrection. 00:20:11.279 --> 00:20:12.960 So they're kind of making fun of it. 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:14.720 This whole question is making fun of verse 25. 00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:16.559 There were seven brothers among us. 00:20:16.799 --> 00:20:20.799 So this is clearly a hypothetical, but they are asking it as if it's real. 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:22.480 Seven brothers among us. 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:30.000 The first married and died, having no offspring, left his wife to his brother, so the terms of Leveret marriage are established. 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:32.559 So see the second, third, and down to the seventh. 00:20:32.880 --> 00:20:38.720 Man, how dumb is the like the fourth, fifth, sixth, or seventh guy? 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:41.839 What did he think was going to happen? 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:45.599 But all seven married, they all died. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.640 So why this question? 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:50.400 Um, verse 27. 00:20:50.799 --> 00:20:54.799 After that, the woman died in the resurrection of the seven, whose wife will she be? 00:20:55.039 --> 00:20:56.799 Remember, they don't even believe in the resurrection. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:04.559 What's behind this question is in their minds, this hypothetical shows you how absurd the idea of the resurrection is. 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:06.640 That's why they're telling this story. 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:11.759 This is a story when the Sadducees stayed up late at night in college arguing with the Pharisees around the vending machines. 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:14.559 This was the story they would bring out and stump the Pharisees with. 00:21:14.640 --> 00:21:16.240 This was their slam dunk story right there. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:16.640 Aha. 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:18.079 What about this? 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:19.440 You know? 00:21:20.559 --> 00:21:21.119 Seven husbands. 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:22.079 Who's she gonna be married to? 00:21:22.319 --> 00:21:24.160 She could have seven husbands in heaven. 00:21:24.319 --> 00:21:28.319 Now, before we pick apart this question, let me show you something that's cool about this question. 00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:34.480 This question, just his existence, demonstrates what the Bible teaches about marriage, is true and is clear. 00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:36.640 The Sadducees don't even go down the road about marriage. 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:42.640 In the Sadducees' mind, it's like obvious that polygamy is outside of God's design for marriage. 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:44.480 Because that would be a very easy answer to this question. 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:46.000 She has seven husbands. 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:47.279 There you go. 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:50.880 I mean that. 00:21:59.359 --> 00:21:59.759 They don't even. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:02.960 Leave you an opportunity for that to be the answer. 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:10.640 So the Bible's teaching about marriage is pretty clear, even to a Sadducee. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:16.000 But I do want to say a couple more things about this. 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:18.799 First, the let me spell out the exact hypocrisy of this. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:19.759 This is their logic. 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:24.400 If people believe this foolish thing and this true thing, then both must be false. 00:22:24.480 --> 00:22:25.839 So that's the hypocrite's fallacy. 00:22:26.240 --> 00:22:35.599 You believe something foolish, you know, they find like the most absurd Christian in the world, and there's a Christian over there that believed the slavery was good, therefore all Christians are bad. 00:22:35.759 --> 00:22:37.359 That's the hypocrite's fallacy. 00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:42.880 You believe ten things, nine of them are true, one is false, therefore all ten are false. 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:44.079 That's the hypocrite's fallacy. 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:48.640 It's not good logic, it's not good thinking, it's definitely what the Sadducees are doing. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:57.519 They developed a hypothetical that they think shows how ridiculous the afterlife is, therefore the afterlife can't be true, because their hypothetical doesn't work. 00:22:57.839 --> 00:23:00.079 That's their hypocrite's fallacy. 00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:02.400 One more thing about the story that I find interesting. 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:06.000 This story is not invented by them out of you know thin air. 00:23:06.160 --> 00:23:07.920 This story comes from the Apocrypha. 00:23:08.960 --> 00:23:10.160 This is an apocryphal story. 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:11.680 It's from Tobit chapter 3. 00:23:11.839 --> 00:23:22.640 The Apocrypha is that section of books in the Bible, uh, in the Catholic Bible anyway, that was written in the 400 years of silence between the end of Malachi, the end of the Old Testament, and the New Testament. 00:23:22.799 --> 00:23:28.640 There's other books that were written during that time that in the Catholic Church they have said, you know, it has authority in Scripture. 00:23:29.039 --> 00:23:31.519 In the Catholic Church, it's part of the oral church tradition. 00:23:32.079 --> 00:23:39.759 You know, a well-versed Catholic would probably say, you know, it's not technically part of the Bible, but it is authoritative because it comes from church tradition kind of thing. 00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:42.480 That was around during Jesus' lifetime. 00:23:43.039 --> 00:23:44.160 Uh a lot of Bibles. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:47.839 There's you know, if you go to Barnes and Noble to buy a Bible, there'll be the Catholic Bible section. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:51.039 What is the difference between a Catholic Bible and a Protestant Bible? 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:53.599 It's this the existence of the Apocrypha in it. 00:23:53.839 --> 00:24:01.920 When I first got saved, I told my friends I'd become a Christian and uh she brought me, she bought me a nice Bible as a gift. 00:24:02.079 --> 00:24:09.759 Uh she bought it at you know some some bookstore and gave it to me as a gift, and so I got a got a pretty cool Bible and went on my first youth retreat. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:13.759 I was a uh right at the end of like the summer after my senior in high school. 00:24:13.839 --> 00:24:15.920 I went with a high school youth group on a youth retreat. 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:21.680 I was not raised in the church, this was like a new experience to me, you know, kids loading up in buses and going somewhere, and it was it was fun. 00:24:21.759 --> 00:24:27.440 And early in the morning at our youth retreat, we had our quiet time, and I'm a brand new Christian, but I know a quiet time. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:35.359 I usually read your Bibles, and so I get out my Bible and thunk and open it to the middle and start reading, which is the Apocrypha. 00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:45.680 And the youth pastor's like making his rounds, you know, walking, walking, looking all over the high school kid's shoulders, and uh the youth pastor asked me, Hey, what are you reading? 00:24:45.920 --> 00:24:49.200 And I thought, that's the dumbest question I've ever heard. 00:24:49.440 --> 00:24:50.480 I thought you were the pastor. 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:51.200 What am I reading? 00:24:51.359 --> 00:24:51.759 The Bible. 00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:56.000 This is Yeah, I'm a new Christian, but I know that you're reading the Bible during devotionals. 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:57.119 I'm like, the Bible? 00:24:57.279 --> 00:24:57.680 Duh. 00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:01.599 And he says, All right, what book are you reading? 00:25:01.839 --> 00:25:04.880 And I look down and Bell and the Dragon. 00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:12.400 And he had to laugh kind of like you're laughing, and it asked me what it's about. 00:25:12.559 --> 00:25:16.559 Uh it dawned on me that I don't think this guy is familiar with Bell and the Dragon. 00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:18.079 What kind of pastor is he? 00:25:18.160 --> 00:25:19.599 Where'd he go to seminary? 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:26.720 Uh so I tried to describe the Bell and the Dragon story, and he's like, okay, I'm gonna get you a new Bible when you get home. 00:25:27.039 --> 00:25:29.279 And that's what I learned about the Apocrypha. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:35.039 You know, in the New Testament, all the sections of the Old Testament are quoted. 00:25:35.279 --> 00:25:37.279 They're all cited as scripture. 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:38.160 By Jesus. 00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:41.279 He cites the history, the prophets, the writing, the Torah. 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:42.720 He cites all of them as scripture. 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:45.279 The wisdom literature cited by our Lord as scripture. 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.960 The New Testament authors cite all of the Old Testament as Scripture. 00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:53.599 The only exception is the Apocrypha, never mentioned in the New Testament. 00:25:53.680 --> 00:25:59.599 It was around during Jesus' lifetime, never cited as authoritative, never cited as anything except here. 00:25:59.759 --> 00:26:03.920 This is the only citation related to the Apocrypha in the New Testament. 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:10.000 You know, there's the end of Jude and that stuff from Enoch, but then you get this here. 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:19.440 It's the Sadducees floating out their apocryphal story from Tobit chapter 3 about a woman who has a bunch of husbands and who she's going to be married to. 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:21.440 This is from the Apocrypha. 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:23.680 Why does the Catholic Church have the Apocrypha? 00:26:23.759 --> 00:26:28.160 And the short answer from that is so much of their doctrine about the afterlife depends on it. 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:30.559 The Apocrypha is what teaches about purgatory. 00:26:30.640 --> 00:26:36.400 And the idea that when you die, your soul doesn't go to heaven, but it goes to a place of purging, all that's apocryphal. 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:42.960 And so you've got the Sadducees latching onto that part of the Apocrypha. 00:26:43.119 --> 00:26:51.680 The very reason it's still present in the Catholic Church today is what the Sadducees locked their fingers into to expose how foolish that was. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:57.599 And you're going to be blown away, by the way, when you see how Jesus interacts with the Apocrypha in about two verses here. 00:26:58.240 --> 00:27:01.440 But I wanted to just make sure you have this impressed in your mind right now. 00:27:01.519 --> 00:27:08.160 The logical fallacy is that if you believe a foolish thing, then nine other true things you believe must also be false. 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:12.000 It's a shallow way of arguing, and Jesus sees right through it. 00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:13.119 Right through it. 00:27:14.079 --> 00:27:17.440 The hypocrite's fallacy gives way to Scripture's fidelity. 00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:19.839 Scripture's fidelity. 00:27:19.920 --> 00:27:23.119 Here's the rebuke that Jesus has, verse 29. 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:29.279 Jesus answered them, You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. 00:27:29.519 --> 00:27:32.640 Which is a bold thing to say to the Sadducees. 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:40.640 The Sanhedrin is there, the Pharisees are there, it's the religious leaders of Israel, and Jesus blasts them for not knowing the scriptures. 00:27:42.400 --> 00:27:43.839 And Jesus has a point. 00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:50.880 So many human objections, so many problems in this world come from people just not knowing the Bible. 00:27:51.039 --> 00:27:57.680 They have these comp they build their lives, their whole religious system around these complicated doctrines they invent. 00:27:57.839 --> 00:27:59.759 And the bottom line is they don't know the Bible. 00:27:59.839 --> 00:28:00.960 And that's what Jesus says here. 00:28:01.039 --> 00:28:07.119 You know, this is imagine the Sadducees shock at this, because this is their like go-to argument to show how the Pharisees are wrong. 00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:12.400 They bring it to Jesus, and his response is, you guys, I'm sorry to say this, but you don't know what you're talking about. 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:14.960 You don't have a fat clue. 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:20.799 You're not aware of what the Bible actually teaches. 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:26.079 Heaven, Jesus says, is spiritual. 00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:26.960 Look at verse 30. 00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:33.680 For in the resurrection, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:35.440 So that's his answer. 00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:40.000 You don't figure out what heaven is like from studying earth, is Jesus' answer. 00:28:40.160 --> 00:28:44.960 You don't deduce the realities of heaven by looking horizontally on earth. 00:28:45.039 --> 00:28:46.160 There's two different axes here. 00:28:46.319 --> 00:28:49.920 The vertical axis, eyes to heaven, horizontal axis, eyes on earth. 00:28:50.079 --> 00:28:52.720 You cannot deduce what is true about heaven by studying earth. 00:28:52.960 --> 00:28:57.519 Jesus has the authority to teach the truth of earth because he's from heaven. 00:28:57.759 --> 00:29:02.319 You do not have the authority to teach the truth of heaven because you've analyzed earth. 00:29:02.480 --> 00:29:07.759 Being smart about earthly things does not make you smart about God things. 00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:10.960 I wish people remembered that more. 00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:16.559 Man, you ask movie stars and politicians like important ethical questions. 00:29:16.799 --> 00:29:18.319 What in the world? 00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:24.400 Or on God? 00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:32.480 Every time I see some physicist with three PhDs talking about how the Bible's not true, it just makes me throw up in my mouth. 00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:36.480 I mean, the guy has like an astrophysicist, so he becomes an expert on scripture? 00:29:36.720 --> 00:29:38.160 What in the world? 00:29:39.119 --> 00:29:41.200 That's the Sadducees right here. 00:29:41.519 --> 00:29:48.720 You guys don't know what you're talking about because you're reasoning to heaven based upon what you see on earth. 00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:52.559 Man, that's just the wrong starting point. 00:29:53.359 --> 00:29:59.359 If your worldview starts with earth, you will not see very far. 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:03.359 The earth is curved, you can't even all see around it. 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:09.039 You're not an expert about things in heaven because you've analyzed the earth. 00:30:09.920 --> 00:30:11.279 That's Jesus' response. 00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:13.920 With all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about. 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:18.000 Very offensive to these people, of course. 00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:23.039